A crucial report into Israel's 2006 war on Lebanon published on Wednesday listed a series of major failings. "Overall, we regard the second Lebanon war as a serious missed opportunity," said the head of a government-appointed commission into the war, judge Eliyahu Winograd, according to an official English translation of his remarks. "We found serious failings and shortcomings in the decision-making processes and staff-work in the political and the military echelons," said Winograd, who gave the final findings of his inquiry at a press conference. "We found severe failings and flaws in the lack of strategic thinking and planning, in both the political and the military echelons."
| Hebollah wasn't destroyed. Nasrallah's not dead. The kidnapped troops weren't either retrieved or confirmed dead. I'd call that Olmert's three strikes and toss him, but I'm not Israeli. Peretz and Haalutz had the grace to bow out, to their credit. |
"The way the original decision to go to war had been made; the fact Israel went to war before it decided which option to select and without an exit strategy -- all these constituted serious failures, which affected the whole war."
| "Exit strategies" are pretty much bullshit. If you're going to war, you go to destroy the enemy. Hezbollah's not destroyed. Olmert's a failure. Trade him in on a dog and shoot the dog. |
"Responsibility for these failures lay, as we had stressed in the interim report, on both the political and the military echelons." According to AFP, the panel slammed the Israeli military's performance, saying Israel's armed forces "failed, especially because of the conduct of the high command and the ground forces, to provide an effective military response to the challenge posed to it by the war."
| Lesson One: Don't put an air force officer in charge of a ground war. Lesson Two: Toss Olmert. |
Winograd said that commission members "stand behind everything we said in the interim report" released last April which roasted the Israeli premier Ehud Olmert for "serious failure" during the conflict. |